Christie Heron is fired by an all-consuming ambition to throw off the shackles of his Northumbrian home and to climb as far as his considerable abilities will take him He joins the household of Richard, Duke of Gloucester but there is a price to pay his beloved sister Meg rejects his new way of life Then King Edward IV dies and in the struggle for power Richard triumphs But Christie is soon to meet an insignificant Welsh adventurer called Henry Tudor